Gray and Bright

I got a lot of fabrics, the last time I went to the craft thrift store, that unexpectedly coordinated really well (plus a lot of fabrics I knew coordinated when I chose them), so, of course, my first inclination was to use them in the same project.  Maybe another layer cake dress?  I started pulling other fabrics from my stash that coordinated, and eventually decided to try making a dress or two from a mix of the new (to me) fabric mixed with stuff I've had for a while.  It seemed more...fair?...to mix new with old, instead of using up all the new in its own projects, while letting fabrics I already had continue to go unused.

I also wanted to make a nice, simple pullover dress--no patchwork this time!  ...well...relatively simple, because I did want to mix the fabrics with nods to the Gunne Sax pattern I have, mainly via visible facings, bias binding the neckline, and ruffles and more ruffles.  But.  No patchwork.  So.  It still seemed to go together very very fast.

 

There were two yards (45") of the print.  I probably could have made the dress as long as I like, from just the print, if I had made it sleeveless, but, this time, I was already planning to add more fabric to make the skirt longer (instead of the common 'scrambling to find an appropriate fabric to add to the hem in a harmonious way.')  This meant I could incorporate the other fabric into other areas from the start, to make it look intentional.  Because it was intentional!

The purple of the secondary fabric doesn't appear in the print, but I really wanted to add the texture of the crinkled fabric, and it's still a purple, so it works well enough. 

I was able to press it to the interfacing without smoothing out the crinkles.

The gingham came from an odd-shaped remnant.  First I cut the cuffs, because I wanted them to be made without being pieced.  

I didn't mind the idea of the neckline bias tape being pieced, but I was surprised that the remnant had almost enough to make the needed bias tape from a single piece, needing only a few inches to be pieced in, landing at the center back(ish).

 

I used the ruffler to gather the top of the skirt, bottoms of the sleeves, and all the ruffles, and the quarter inch rolled hem attachment (it's not a presser foot--it screws onto the sewing machine bed) to finish the bottom edges of the ruffles.

I'm still using the brown serger thread.  I went selvedge to selvedge with the skirt and ruffles, so there was no need for serging there.  I serged around all edges of the pocket bags before attaching them, since I wasn't going to be serging the side seams.

The more I worked with the print fabric, the more I suspected it might have some polyester in it--not much, though.  It still ripped easily, and cooperated smoothly with the ruffler and hem roller, all things that a lot of high-polyester poly-cotton blends don't necessarily do.

I looked up the name on the selvedge, and found that the manufacturer went out of business in the early 1990s.  In regard to the polyester blend, that didn't surprise me, bit I will admit that I though the print looked relatively modern--I think it's due to the gray and green-gray tones in the background and leaves.

It's definitely a babydoll dress, eh? 

Oh, almost forgot, I used the Fake Burda 6401/Fake McCall's 8197/Gunne Sax Inspired Variations pattern.  There're a lot of gift wrap pattern pieces stuffed in that envelope now.